When it comes to B2B lead generation, there are some tried and true tactics that everybody knows about – but what about the methods for B2B lead generation that are still flying below the radar? Here are three tips for B2B lead generation that you may not have thought about.
Tip #1: Gate your premium content
The obvious way to get names of B2B leads is by giving away everything for free (or almost for free). That’s the basic logic behind giving B2B users a free trial, a free subscription or a free demo. The idea is that a free introductory trial will help a prospect get over the initial selling threshold. Once he or she is past that threshold, the thinking goes, it’s much easier to sell, up-sell or re-sell later.
What about using the exact opposite approach? Instead of giving away everything for free, what about gating your premium content, to give it an air of exclusivity? Sure, some of your basic content can be given away for free, but anything that takes time, money or resources to develop can stay behind a premium content gate. The only way to get past that gate is to give your basic information – name and email. To make this approach work, of course, you have to develop content – such as e-books or whitepapers – so good that people are willing to “pay” for it by giving up their personal details in order to receive it.
Tip #2: Repurpose your marketing content in new ways for the Internet
Repurposing your B2B marketing content is not the same as giving your prospects old, warmed-over content. Instead, what you’re doing is taking the “best of the best” – all your best content that has already succeeded by some metric – and then repurposing it for another content medium to make it more dynamic. The great part of this idea is that you already have “proof” that the content works – so here’s your chance to really make it pop.
For example, think about bundling all your best articles or blog posts and turning them into an e-book that can be used to attract prospects. You can use your best blog posts to start conversations on LinkedIn or use any proprietary data you might have to create an infographic that will attract prospects.
Tip #3: Design a new user experience to let prospects come to you
In the online B2C world, there’s a lot of emphasis on UX (user experience) and UI (user interface). The idea being, of course, that the easier it is for a prospect to learn about a product or brand, the more likely he or she will be to purchase it later. Tens of thousands of dollars – if not more – are designed on creating the perfect user experience, guiding them from Point A to Point B.
So why not adapt some of those ideas for the B2B experience as well? It’s typically assumed that B2B experiences are fundamentally different from B2C experiences, but that’s not necessarily the case. The line is starting to blur between the two, and that’s opening up opportunities for what some have deemed the “customer experience” (to differentiate it from the “user experience”) Since B2B customers are spending more and more time learning about you and your products before you even reach out to them, it only makes sense that you should make it as easy as possible to learn more about you. You are letting them come to you.
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So there you have it – those are 3 quick tips for generating B2B leads that in many ways are a rejection of the conventional wisdom about B2B sales.
Instead of giving everything away for free, for example, you are making it exclusive by “gating it.” Instead of assuming that there’s some vast divide between B2C and B2B methods, you are using principles behind UX and UI to create a full customer experience to educate them about products and services.
Master these three tips – and you could be on the path to future B2B selling greatness.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.